Thursday Night Ratings: Solid Start For ABC Soaps

ABC earned second place on season premiere Thursday among Adults 18-49, leading Fox by 4% and NBC by 71%. The network won the night among Women 18-49. Below are details from ABC:

During the 8 o’clock hour against Fox’s THE X FACTOR and CBS’ top-rated comedies (THE BIG BANG THEORY/TWO AND A HALF MEN), the series debut of ABC’s LAST RESORT outdelivered its NBC competition (SNL Primetime Election/Up All Night) by 4.2 million viewers and by 22% in Adults 18-49. In addition, the new ABC drama attracted nearly as large an audience as THE X FACTOR, pacing within 113k Total Viewers. Despite the competition, Last Resort built by 8% in viewers and by 15% in Adults 18-49 from its first half-hour to its second half-hour.

Up over the year-ago debut of CHARLIE'S ANGELS in Adults 18-49 (+5%), LAST RESORT stood as ABC’s biggest Thursday drama debut in 3 years with young adults – since 9/24/09. In addition, the new series scored ABC’s highest Adult 18-49 rating in the hour in more than 8 months – since 1/12/12.

Building on its lead-in at 9 p.m. in Adults 18-49 (+95%), ABC’s 9th season premiere of GREY'S ANATOMY led its competition by wide margins and finished as Thursday’s definitive #1 drama. During the 9 o’clock hour, ABC’s GREY'S ANATOMY outdelivered CBS’ PERSON OF INTEREST by 48%, Fox’s Glee by 72% and NBC’s comedies by 95% (THE OFFICE/PARKS AND RECREATION). Additionally, GREY'S stood as Thursday’s top-rated series with Adults 18-34.

Rising over its year-ago season opener in viewers (+11%) and young adults (+5%), GREY’s tallied its 2nd-highest numbers since March 2011 – since 3/31/11.

During the 10 o’clock hour, ABC’s sophomore season premiere of SCANDAL ranked #1 in its hour with Adults 18-34 and Women 18-34.

· ABC’s SCANDAL grew over its freshman season premiere (4/5/12) across all key Adults: AD18-34 (+31%), AD18-49 (+10%) AD25-54 (+8%). In fact the show marked series highs in both Adults 18-34 and Women 18-34, while hitting its 2nd-best-ever Adult 18-49 and Adult 25-54 numbers.